As Lesley Blackner was growing up in Mandarin in the 1960s and '70s, it still was a largely rural community of orange groves and weekend homes.

The 1978 Bolles graduate today lives in Palm Beach County and recounts that she was stunned by changes in the area where she grew up when she returned about five years ago.

"I couldn't even recognize it," she said.

Today, Blackner is president of Hometown Democracy, a group that seeks to give voters the authority to approve or deny changes to their town or county's long-term land-use maps. Up through today, she said, that authority has been in the hands of county and state governments, which she says have acted largely on behalf of developers, inviting sprawl, she said.

"I personally don't like what's happened in Mandarin," she said. "But how do you reform a system that's totally controlled by the development industry?"

Backers of Hometown Democracy have steadily gathered petitions for four years to get the measure before voters, Blackner said. And last week, the Florida Division of Elections placed the measure on the November 2010 ballot as Amendment 4.

Hometown Democracy centers on each Florida county's "comprehensive plan." According to state law, municipalities must make a "future land-use map" to show which areas are residential, commercial, industrial or otherwise. But when a developer needs a change for a project, he or she can ask a local government for a "comprehensive plan change."

Those changes can be minute or broad. If a local government votes to approve a request, it is sent to the state's Department of Community Affairs for consideration and approval.

"We have the growth plans, and they shouldn't be changed except for good reasons," Blackner said. "But they're rubber-stamped without any concern for the community."

If Amendment 4 passes, each comprehensive plan will need voter approval, and that has brought opposition from many quarters throughout the state.

There are 135 businesses, governments and chambers of commerce listed as opposing the measure on the Web site for "Floridians for Smarter Growth," including chambers of commerce for Jacksonville and Clay County. Those organizations say Hometown Democracy will slow development in Florida and deepen the recession.

Jacksonville City Councilman Bill Bishop is no fan of the measure, although he concedes its backers have a few valid points.

"It would reduce the number of land-use changes, because of the time and effort it will take to get it done," he said. "It is a reaction to a perceived lack of response by local government regarding land-use planning."

Other county government officials from the Jacksonville area were more outspoken about the measure.

"It will bring government to a crawl, which is probably what advocates are hoping for," said Nassau County Commissioner Mike Boyle. "We're a representative democracy in this country. It's not perfect, but it's better than anything else."

St. Johns County Commissioner Ken Bryan said he isn't opposed to the amendment if it truly represents the will of the people. "I'm not against growth, but it should be done in a smart, controlled way," he said.

DCA spokesman James Miller said the agency isn't yet commenting on the measure, but Northeast Florida Regional Council CEO Brian Teeple said, at the least, it could bring an increase in elections expenses and will turn part of municipal planning into pre-election wars of words. Plus, he said, it will be hard on municipal governments because they still have to do the same amount of work currently done for comprehensive plan change requests.

"The problem is we will get away from planning, review and consistency, and it will be a beauty contest," Teeple said. "This is a radical departure of governance. We're going back to town hall meetings for land use."

Miller and Teeple said that as the measure nears the ballot, land owners and developers are rushing to lock up development rights to their land to make it more marketable when the economy improves.

Miller said the DCA receives about 8,000 comprehensive plan change requests from governments around the state each year, and there's been an increase in change requests this year in anticipation of Hometown Democracy's possible approval, Miller said.

Under Hometown Democracy, those changes would have to go before voters in their respective areas. Mandarin property manager Janet Stanko said that as she worked to gather petitions in the Jacksonville area, she said about half the people she spoke to supported the idea.

"Some people almost grabbed the clipboard out of my hand when I said 'control growth,'" she said. "Some people told me their own stories of horror about growth out of control that impacted their respective neighborhoods. There is a huge groundswell of resentment against inappropriate development and bad growth decisions by our politicians."

kevin.turner@jacksonville.com, (904) 359-4609

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